Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

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WND: Obama Wrecking Economy On Purpose!

You really have to marvel at the Worldnutdaily’s faux-journalism business model. They have one of their own reporters write a book accusing Obama of trying to destroy the economy on purpose, then they write up a “story” with the headline:

Obama now accused of destroying U.S. economy … on purpose!
And the whole “story” is really just an advertisement for the book they’re making a profit on.

A new book released today documents how President Obama and progressive Democrats are deliberately overloading the U.S. financial system, using socialist designs to remake the economy.

“Red Army: The Radical Network that must be defeated to save America” by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott unearths the radical origins of Obama’s major economic legislation and policies, including the 2009 “stimulus” and health-care law.

The book, with nearly 1,500 endnotes, documents how these radicals aim to remake the American financial system with massive government control.

Wow, it’s got endnotes? Then it must be true! Every president tries to ruin the economy, you know, because it’s so good for their chances of being reelected.

In my opinion they are singularly the worst citation device one can possibly use. Their only possible purpose is to make checking the citation as difficult as humanly possible. If you’re going to tout your “evidence” you at least need to use footnotes.

But then again, “1500 endnotes” sounds impressive so long as people don’t actually check what they cite to.

I check out the ‘Nut’ almost every day for a laugh. Just another Obama is evil message. At least 2 or 3 are up all the time. My most favorite thing on there currently is Herman Cain as a banner contributor on a weekly basis. GOP frontrunner (in some polls anyway) shares a banner honors with the likes of Chuck Norris, Pam Gellar, Pat Buchanan, Pat Boone, Larry Klayman and Victoria Jackson. And he wants to be president? Of what exactly? His local idiot’s club?

Endnotes are fine when they’re only citations. They’re annoying when some are citations and others are additional information about the topic. In contrast, the best use I’ve seen is in the 30th anniversary edition of The Selfish Gene, where Dawkins updates the science supporting his arguments (even admitting when he was wrong).

As for the topic of this post, thanks for the latest WND liberal conspiracy story. They’re entertaining, and I’d rather read them here than at the WND where the commenters not only believe it, but add supporting details (and I use that word loosely). Too frustrating–I’d rather read a discussion of citation conventions in academic genres.

I thought that was what the Tea Party was doing? Make sure that the economy doesn’t recover, just to make sure Obama won’t accidentally get credit for it and gets re-elected?

Yes, I was going to make this point: This idea seems prima facie absurd to us, but to Tea Partiers, the idea of deliberately wrecking the economy for short term political gain may not seem so implausible to them. After all, they were making noise about doing exactly that back in August…

Re: Endnotes. Footnotes are obviously preferable, but endnotes are better than nothing. And while the average reader is not going to check citations in footnotes, let alone endnotes, there will always be some readers who will, and that makes it easier for them to detect any bullshit. It’s better than nothing.

Rush Limbaugh started claiming that Barack Obama was purposefully and successfully destroying the economy several months prior to his being elected president. Consider the idiocy and hatred of his fan base to slavishly reward such a person, directed merely towards Barack Obama but their own country.

Red Army: The Radical Network that must be defeated to save America” by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott unearths the radical origins of Obama’s major economic legislation and policies, including the 2009 “stimulus” and health-care law.

Rush Limbaugh started claiming that Barack Obama was purposefully and successfully destroying the economy several months prior to his being elected president. Consider the idiocy and hatred of his fan base to slavishly reward such a person, directed merely towards Barack Obama but their own country.

Just like conservatards blamed Clinton for the fire fight at Ruby Ridge, which happened before he was even President. I guess the his election victory vibes went back in time to get the FBI to start the shooting.